Author: Stooge

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February 16, 1980 – Elliott Gould / Gary Numan (S5 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
outside Richard Nixon’s brownstone, Father Guido Sarducci waits for him

  

— Another season 5 episode that unexpectedly starts with a Weekend Update segment.
— Oh, it’s a follow-up to Father Guido Sarducci’s Japan arrest.
— I wonder who in the cast, if anyone, will play Nixon in this, now that we don’t have Aykroyd anymore.
— Don Novello’s voice sounds a little hoarse tonight.
— At first, I assumed Sarducci was in front of a chroma-key screen, but it appears that he actually IS outdoors.
— Overall, nothing special, despite a few okay lines here and there. I guess this was just here to set up a segment we’ll be coming back to later tonight.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

 

— Gotta love how laid-back Elliott always is as an SNL host. He casually begins eating a licorice stick as soon as he makes his entrance in this monologue.
— Oh, it’s a carrot he’s eating.
— Liked his “It’s got balls” comment about why he loves SNL.
— It’s over ALREADY??? Geez, this was almost as short and pointless a monologue as Teri Garr’s from two episodes ago.
— Hey, I just realized, there was no musical tap-dancing number. Isn’t that supposed to be Elliott’s regular thing in the monologue every time he hosts?
STARS: ??? (undecided)


JEWESS JEANS
Rhonda Weiss models the kosher designer denim

   

— A Gilda Radner classic that I’ve always loved. Easily the best use of her Rhonda Weiss character.
— I really like the late 70s-sounding commercial jingle.
— Great ending with the announcer’s “You don’t have to be Jewish…” being followed by Gilda’s “…but it wouldn’t hurt.”
STARS: *****


KENNEDY-POWELL DEBATE
Jody Powell (BDM) subs for Jimmy Carter during Ted Kennedy (BIM) debate

     

— Always good to see Bill’s Ted Kennedy impression.
— I almost thought the person sitting opposite of Bill’s Kennedy was Harry Shearer as President Carter, but it turns out to be Brian Doyle-Murray as Carter’s press secretary, who’s sitting in for the president tonight. Bah, poor excuse to not have anyone do a Carter impression, if you ask me. I don’t understand; did SNL feel Dan Aykroyd’s Carter impression was so untouchable that there was no need to even bother having anyone take over that role this season? I still say Shearer could’ve possibly done a half-decent Carter voice.
— As I said sometime recently, I always like seeing Murray brothers Bill and Brian interacting with each other in a sketch. Is this is the only season in SNL history where two relatives were in the cast at the same time?
— Good Chappaquiddick comment from Brian.
— Overall, a pretty good debate sketch.
STARS: ***½


BECAUSE THE WINE REMEMBERS
Everett & Giorgio Gallo wine is made & shipped with care for winos

 

— Eh, didn’t care much for this. This came off as just quick, forgettable filler.
STARS: **


THE INCREDIBLE MAN
yellow snow leads to the Canadian Wizard of Oz

       

— Interesting idea for a Wizard of Oz knockoff.
— The altered “Over the Rainbow” lyrics started out pretty funny, though the humor in the song died down after a while.
— Gilda making her Catatonic Colleen face after knocking herself dizzy on her bed’s backboard.
— Jane playing a character named Gilda. Heh.
— Good voice on Jane.
— The knockoff version of the yellow brick road being “the yellow line in the snow” is hilarious.
— At first glance, I almost thought that was Dan Aykroyd as the frozen hockey player. Must be his brother Peter. I still have a hard time recognizing him in sketches.
— Seeing as how this IS a sketch about Canadians, I guess Peter’s a natural for this. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out he’s the one who wrote this.
— Garrett’s role as a flying monkey has often been said to be the most demeaning role he has EVER gotten on the show, and is also said to be a perfect example of how poorly used he was this season.
— I liked Laraine’s “I didn’t even get out of the castle and I’m melting!!” line.
— Funny how the Incredible Man’s headquarters are a cheap mobile home.
— I just spotted a stagehand accidentally entering the shot.
— Incredible Man knocking Gilda out with a board while Gilda’s in the middle of doing the “no place like home” knockoff was pretty funny.
— Another blooper, where during the dream-ending screen transition, they mistakenly cut back to the snowy forest set briefly and you can see Peter Aykroyd getting out of character.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Cars”

— Adding to what I said earlier about how lovably laid-back Elliott Gould always is as a host, he pulls out a cigarette and starts smoking right in the middle of his intro to this musical performance.


WEEKEND UPDATE
Father Guido Sarducci believes the Nixons are late because of long movie
JAC sends a message to retiring Walter Cronkite by unbuttoning her blouse

     

— We get a continuation of the Sarducci/Nixon remote from earlier.
— This Sarducci piece is starting to kinda remind me a remote segment he would do a decade later (during a special guest appearance) about finding the Pope’s missing wallet, and I remember not even being crazy about that one.
— Bill seems visibly unsure of how to pronounce “Entenmann’s”.
— Bill’s “big fat slob” report was great; felt like a bit of a callback to his rant about fat people a few episodes ago.
— Jane’s sultry message towards Walter Cronkite is yet another good continuation of the “Jane has a love jones for Cronkite” running joke this season.
— Not a great Update tonight, overall.
STARS: **


PRISON RECRUITING
college basketball coach (host) heavily recruits jailed murderer (GAM)

   

— The increasing number of all these people entering Garrett’s cell to try to recruit him seems like a fairly promising premise.
— Yvonne Hudson playing a character with her own first name.
— Laraine’s seems like she’s almost playing a variation of her child psychologist/baby mogul character.
— Okay, this sketch ain’t turning out as funny as I thought it would be.
— Garrett’s frozen facial reaction at the end was kinda funny, but overall, I didn’t care for this sketch.
STARS: **


ALL TIME RADIO
all-time radio station deejay (HAS) keeps listeners chronologically aware

 

— Oh, here’s the Shearer radio sketch from this episode that I’ve heard is REALLY good.
— I liked Harry’s “I almost asked your question for you” ad-lib after he accidentally greeted a caller with “What time is it?” when the caller was supposed to ask him that.
— The clock has said 4:15 for much longer than a minute.
— The angry caller complaining about getting fired sounds an awful lot like John Belushi. I know he’s off the show, but seriously, the caller sounds way too much like Belushi to NOT be him. Is he making some strange kind of uncredited voice cameo or something?
— Oh, now they addressed exactly what I pointed out earlier about the clock being on 4:15 for way too long. Turns out the clock is broken.
— I think I just heard Yvonne Hudson’s voice as one of the callers.
— Hmm, Harry keeps making more occasional line flubs, but he’s so damn good at recovering from them with natural little ad-libs without missing a beat in his great rapid-fire delivery.
— Overall, a very good sketch, though I wouldn’t say this is better than Harry’s earlier radio show sketch from the Howard Hesseman episode. Either way, Harry continues to add a much-needed breath of fresh air to this increasingly shaky season, carving out a niche for himself with his creative sketch premises and great delivery.
STARS: ****


THE SUBWAY GENIE
a subway genie (host) takes (GIR) on an underground tour of NYC

     

— For anyone keeping count, this is now the FOURTH sketch Yvonne Hudson has been in tonight, and she isn’t even in the cast yet!
— I liked Yvonne’s “Get a job, turkey!” line to Garrett.
— Is this sketch supposed to be a character piece for Garrett?
— What the hell? This sketch has been going on for minutes, and I can’t find anything to say, as practically nothing has been entertaining or interesting ever since the direction this took with the genie appearing.
— Hmm, a fourth-wall breaking ending.
— Yeah, the fourth-wall break did NOTHING to save this sketch.
— Overall, this seemed to have good intentions, but the resulting sketch didn’t work for me at all.
STARS: *½


NIXON IN NEW YORK
Father Guido Sarducci talks to one of Richard Nixon’s new neighbors

— Another continuation of tonight’s Sarducci runner.
— Don Novello’s sorta-hoarse voice from earlier tonight is sounding even worse now.
— I like Sarducci’s “candid” complaints about SNL making him stand out in the cold all night, when he thinks he’s not on the air. “If I get pneumonia, I’m gonna sue ’em.”
— A mention of “The Rocky Horror Show”, which gets instant enthusiastic applause from the studio audience.
— The reveal that the question Sarducci wants to ask Nixon is “If you could be an animal, what would it be?” wasn’t all that funny. Tonight’s Sarducci remote hasn’t really been taking off.
STARS: **


KRAMER VS. GODZILLA
movie has custody battle pitting man against monster

   

— “From Yoshimura Studios in Japan”. Heh, nice reference to a certain SNL staffer and frequent on-camera extra.
— I love the concept of this “Kramer vs. Kramer” parody. I remember hearing about this sketch before.
— Harry seems to be trying with his Dustin Hoffman impression, but I’m not sure that he’s nailing the voice.
— Ah, there’s Akira Yoshimura himself.
— Haha, Akira doing the badly-dubbed Japanese movie lip-syncing is funny.
— Overall, short but decent. I was expecting this to be a little better, though.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Praying to the Aliens”

 

— Haha, Elliott does an even more unique musical guest intro this time, by just silently holding up a cue card which has his line on it.


GOODNIGHTS
the Nixons’ limousine arrives just as the show ends

  

— Maybe it’s just me, but Elliott’s sounding a little too somber during his goodnights speech.
— Don Pardo announces that next week’s host will be “Kirk Douglas, with musical guest James Brown”. Brown must’ve ended up having to cancel, because Sam & Dave turn out to be the musical guest in that episode. Brown would later appear the following season, as one of the many great musical guests of the 80-81 season.
— After the scrolling ending credits are done, we get a sudden cutaway back to Guido Sarducci and his barely-there-anymore hoarse voice, who catches up to Nixon (played by an extra) and bombards him with the question “What animal would you be?” over and over. This is one of the rare times SNL has done a post-goodnights scene. In fact, I think the only other one in SNL history may be in Bob Newhart’s episode from 1995.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A pretty “meh” episode. There were some good things, but there were too many weak, dull segments, especially in the post-Update half. The Father Guido Sarducci segments also weren’t the best thing to have as a running thread throughout the show. This season has not been doing well ever since they came back from Christmas break; there has yet to be a good episode in the 1980 half of the season. The burnout from the writers is starting to becoming evident.
— Elliott Gould did his usual laid-back approach to hosting, though I think I got more laughs just from his interesting musical guest intros than from anything he did in tonight’s actual sketches. Not even his monologue featured anything noteworthy. This would end up being his final time hosting in the original era, which is a little bittersweet, especially when you know what unfortunately lies ahead in his next (and final) SNL stint the following season, hosting the inaugural episode of a doomed new cast.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Chevy Chase):
— a very slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Kirk Douglas

Posted on

February 9, 1980 – Chevy Chase / Marianne Faithfull, Tom Scott (S5 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
while visiting Gerald Ford (CHC), Henry Kissinger (ALF) plays it safe

   

— It’s the same huge living room set from the Bel Airabs sketches.
— The return of Franken’s funny Henry Kissinger impression.
— Huge, and I mean HUGE audience applause for Chevy’s walk-on. The applause goes on for almost half a minute. At one point while waiting for the long applause to die down, Chevy jokingly pretends to walk off the set.
— Loved Franken’s monotone “Oh, yes” after the applause finally stopped.
— Man, the traditional cold opening-ending Chevy pratfall came off disappointing tonight. This pratfall looked tame compared to the great ones he did as a cast member.
— Overall, despite the disappointing ending, this was a decent opening with the usual standby Chevy-as-Ford humor that we haven’t seen in a long while.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— New opening montage!

       

— Wonder why they decided to randomly change the montage halfway through the season.
— Ah, there’s the famous “Lorne in a crowd” shot. (fourth screencap above)
— Man, I LOVE these opening credits. The cast shots look great, the stop-motion style is unique, the colors look cool, the spraypainted Saturday Night Live logo on the subway train door is very memorable, and the overall visual quality of the montage is simply fantastic. Easily one of the all-time best opening montages in SNL history.
— Harry Shearer has been promoted to the main cast! This is the first of only a few times in SNL history where someone goes from a featured player to a repertory player right in the middle of a season.


MONOLOGUE
once-feuding CHC & BIM musically dispel any bad vibes between them

  

— When the opening montage ends, Chevy (who is visibly VERY out-of-breath, by the way) is strangely already seen onstage before Pardo even announces him. Did Chevy make his entrance too early when the montage was still running?
— Chevy does the “jokingly pretend to walk off-stage during a long applause break” thing once again.
— Wow, he seems OUT OF IT, and his delivery is coming off very mumbly.
— He addresses rumors of him not getting along with the cast last time he hosted, and brings out Bill Murray onstage to prove a point. Hmm, I guess even back then, the public was aware of the backstage fistfight Chevy and Bill got into right before airtime when Chevy previously hosted.
— Bill’s entrance gets a very good audience response in its own right.
— I admit, it IS nice to see Chevy and Bill getting along so well in this.
— The song medley is pretty funny and is coming off Nick the Lounge Singer-esque.
— I really liked the “We Shot the Sheriff” part.
— Overall, thank god for Bill’s entrance and the song medley, because Chevy had been doing a very rough job out there by himself.
STARS: **½


PRE-CHEW CHARLIE’S
all the food at Pre-Chew Charlie’s (BIM) restaurant is easy to digest

     

— Wow, quick transition for Bill, with very little time in between his exit in the monologue and this sketch starting up. I’m always amazed at how quickly SNL cast members are able to go from sketch-to-sketch.
— Handlebar mustaches are always worth a laugh.
— Hilarious disgusting concept. A spiritual predecessor to that famous sketch from 2000 where Julianna Margulies played a dinner guest at a house where a family feeds each other pre-chewed food mouth-to-mouth.
— Great uproarious audience reaction.
— This feels like the kind of crazy restaurant commercial Dan Aykroyd would’ve played the spokesman of sometime during the first four seasons.
— LOL, during the sketch-ending applause, Brian Doyle-Murray keeps trying to hand his fork over to Chevy, but Chevy’s so out-of-it, he doesn’t even notice Brian’s fork (last screencap above) and it takes him FOREVER to finally realize. Boy, he has not been doing well tonight so far.
STARS: ****


THE BEL AIRABS
middle-eastern family entraps congressman (TOD) in Abscam

   

— This is the installment of this sketch I remember seeing years ago.
— Weird seeing that same huge living room set twice tonight.
— Chevy’s pistol-whipping line was pretty funny. But, man, he’s still coming off as a mess and is looking kinda lost.
— Someone in the audience can be heard going “ooooh” for some reason when Bill walks on.
— I can’t say enough how much Gilda cracks me up in these Bel Airabs sketches.
— The scene with Laraine and the goat came off awkward.
— Instead of using Kareem Abdul Jabbar as a gag name during the fake ending credits like they did last time, the gag name in tonight’s fake ending credits is Spiro T. Agnew.
— Overall, an interesting premise and a well-done sketch, though I didn’t laugh at this one as much as I did during the first Bel Airabs installment.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Marianne Faithfull performs “Broken English”

— Jesus Christ, is this a joke? Why does her voice keep cracking so horribly?


WEEKEND UPDATE
BIM says we should draft women- if we lose, the Russians look like jerks
BIM sings “Happy Birthday” to George Washington & Abraham Lincoln busts

     

— I liked Jane’s mid-joke “god bless you” ad-lib when Bill coughed off-camera.
— The Alan Zweibel picture gag continues. (second screencap above) Haha, I’m loving this running joke, and I hope it keeps going.
— Bill’s commentary on President Carter drafting women was hilarious. Classic Bill Murray.
— Great dirty comment from Jane about Walter Cronkite, as a reference to that “First Love” short she did earlier this season.
— Bill’s ridiculously-wordy birthday song to Washington and Lincoln busts was really funny.
— Hmm, no Chevy appearance on tonight’s Update. Surprising. Probably for the best, though, considering how badly his performances have been going so far tonight.
— Come to think of it, there were no guest commentaries at all tonight. Guess we didn’t need it, though, as this Update was a strong night for Bill and Jane.
STARS: ****


YOU CAN’T WIN!
contestants face impossible odds; Bert Convy cameo

         

— Chevy’s rough night continues, as right out of the gate in this sketch, we get lots of line flubs from him as he’s reading off the index cards in his hand.
— I really like this part with the cast members in the studio audience excitedly “coming on down” when their name is called.
— Holy hell, Chevy’s delivery is fucking TERRIBLE in this sketch so far. He cannot get a word out without stumbling over it, and he sounds very drugged-up and mush-mouthed. Drugs would certainly explain what the fuck is going on with him tonight, because he is definitely not himself. When I remember the smooth, calm-and-collected delivery he had during his years as a cast member, it’s sad to watch him in the state he’s in tonight.
— Geez, Garrett’s not making things any better by badly flubbing a joke himself, though in his case, that’s typical. He consistently stumbles over his lines on a weekly basis.
— I like the idea of the ridiculous “Pot Of Gold” challenge with Laraine.
— Chevy is noticeably starting to wipe sweat off his forehead. Come to think of it, he HAS been visibly sweating all throughout this episode.
— Man, do I hate Chevy’s delivery in this. What is going ON with him? He’s getting worse and worse, to the degree that he’s now started to develop a strange habit of occasionally mumbling unintelligible little things while nervously laughing. He also keeps jumping ahead of the script while stepping on others’ lines, and keeps making long awkward pauses while he tries to find his next line on the index cards he’s reading off of. I even hate the little bizarre ad-libbed things he keeps doing, like awkwardly tossing away some of the index cards for no apparent reason.
— Chevy to Bill: “I know you’re a wreck. Now, I want you to pick a number–” Bill to Chevy: “You’re a little jumpy yourself.” Haha, excellent ad-lib from Bill, who’s clearly seeing what a mess Chevy is in this.
— A Bert Convy cameo.
— Jesus Christ, Chevy did a particularly INTENSE forehead sweat wipe just now while greeting Convy.
— Oh my god, just when I thought Chevy’s disastrous performance in this sketch couldn’t get any worse, now he said “Sho does se” when he meant to say “So does she”. Normally, I would facepalm in reaction to such a bad line flub, but honestly, this particular flub was so bad that it has me absolutely DYING with laughter right now as I type. Haha, Chevy doesn’t even seem to be aware of his mistake. Bert Convy is certainly aware, though, and his facial reaction is PRICELESS. (screencap below)

— Yet another sketch tonight with fake ending credits, and in the same font and color as the one from Bel Airabs, too. Only this time, there’s no apparent jokes within the credits.
— Overall, geez louise, what a failure. This sketch actually had a promising idea and had potential to be pretty great, but boy should they have saved it for another host. If you’ve noticed above, I had A LOT to say about this sketch, and almost all of it was about how unbelievably bad Chevy was. He hurt this sketch so much and butchered practically every single line he had here, which is especially unfortunate, considering this was a VERY LONG gameshow sketch in which he played the host, and thus, he was required to do A LOT of talking during this. I bet whoever wrote this sketch regretted the decision to give Chevy so much dialogue while he/she was watching this sketch backstage.
STARS: *


SPEAKING OF FASHION …AND OTHER THINGS
Mr. Blackwell (HAS) discusses CHC’s line of clothes

     

— The debut of Harry’s Mr. Blackwell impression, which is one of the very few things from Harry’s stint this season that would carry over into his second SNL stint years later in the 84-85 season.
— Interesting format, with the low-budgeted public access black-and-white look and shaky camera.
— Ugh, Chevy AGAIN keeps stepping on others’ lines and jumping ahead of the script.
— WTF? Is Chevy’s clip-on mic mishap real?
— Okay, the mic mishap is probably part of the sketch, considering the “low-budget talk show” premise, but given the disastrous way Chevy’s performances have been going all night, it easily could pass for a real blooper.
— Heh, I admit Chevy briefly speaking loudly right into his clip-on mic gave me a good cheap laugh. Probably the first natural, intentional laugh I got from him all night.
— Oh, god, now Chevy’s mush-mouthed delivery from the You Can’t Win sketch has come back. Are we in for another hilarious “sho does se”-type line flub?
— Overall, this had a pretty intriguing format and featured the usual great dry Harry Shearer performance. But ultimately, this sadly ended up being yet another promising sketch that was overshadowed by a bizarre, terrible Chevy performance that dragged it down.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Marianne Faithfull performs “Guilt”


LINDEN PALMER, HOLLYWOOD’S FORGOTTEN DIRECTOR
by TOS- career recalled

     

— Another display of Schiller’s love for doing black-and-white shorts. Come to think of it, almost every single one of his films so far been in black-and-white.
— Overall, not much to say here. This wasn’t one of Schiller’s better films, but this at least had a nice charm to it and was well-made.
STARS: **½


THE TALKING LETTER
Honduran’s poison darts cut short (JAC)’s audio tape to mother (LAN)

     

— Jane’s snobbish voice is pretty funny.
— Interesting transition to making Jane’s ongoing message now sound like it’s being played on tape by Laraine, despite the fact that Jane is actually still delivering the message live.
— It feels strange seeing a live sketch with so much absolute silence from the audience (which is something I’ll probably have to get used to for next season). Though I’m not even sure if this sketch is even attempting laughs, the way it’s been going so far. I get a feeling SOMETHING’S gonna happen, though.
— Interesting camera angles from the ceiling. That kind of camerawork is another thing that’s strange to see in a live sketch.
— Bill suddenly getting shot in the neck with a dart was hilarious. It came completely out of nowhere.
— Great Akira Yoshimura appearance at the end.
— Overall, wow, what a bizarre, very unconventional sketch. I didn’t know what the heck I was watching at first, but in the end, after the random surprise ending, I actually really like this overall sketch. An interesting little experiment. And, hey, there was no Chevy to ruin this, either!
STARS: ****


CHEVY CHASE AND TOM SCOTT: “16 TONS”
CHC, Tom Scott, SNL Band perform “16 Tons”

 

— Now we’re getting a Chevy Chase musical performance? Uh-oh.
— At first, in those sunglasses and the fact that he’s sitting behind a piano, I almost thought Chevy was reprising “Very White”, the Caucasian Barry White character he did in a sketch from season 1.
— Is this going to be a comedy bit, or is he actually going to attempt a legitimate song?
— Looks like it’s a legitimate song.
— This performance makes me wonder, is Chevy hosting tonight to promote that now-infamous 1980 album of his?


GOODNIGHTS

 

— Feels like there’s barely anybody onstage anymore.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A pretty rough show. Though thinking back on it, there were actually some good things in the first half. The second half, while a lot worse, at least had a weird experimental sketch that I was oddly fascinated by (The Talking Letter). However, there was a very unpleasant feeling to this overall episode that kills a lot of the goodwill. That unpleasant feeling is no doubt due to the host’s performance. Speaking of which…
— I don’t know WHAT was going on with Chevy tonight, whether it was too much cocaine or too much painkillers. The man was definitely on SOMETHING, because my god, what a disastrous overall performance from him tonight. He was an absolute MESS throughout this episode, coming off very out-of-it, mush-mouthing and stumbling his way through his lines, looking fidgety and jumpy (as Bill pointed out in a great ad-lib at one point), visibly flop-sweating his way through every sketch, and not even nailing his traditional cold opening-ending pratfall. He was particularly awful in You Can’t Win, where he couldn’t get one clear sentence out for the entire sketch, seemed to be sweating worse and worse as the sketch went on, and kept making bizarre, unfunny little ad-libs that were met with confused silence from the audience. That embarrassing “sho does se” line flub of his continues to crack me up every time I think about it. When people often mention Louise Lasser, Milton Berle, and Frank Zappa as the most infamous hosting performances from the original SNL era, they DEFINITELY should be including tonight’s Chevy stint in there as well.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Teri Garr):
— a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Elliott Gould

Posted on

January 26, 1980 – Teri Garr / The B-52’s (S5 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
seeking Paul McCartney interview, Father Guido Sarducci gets arrested

   

— Don Pardo’s opening mention of “the crisis in Tokyo” gets immediate big laughs from the audience. I take it this is a spoof/variation of the Iran hostage crisis going on at the time?
— Oh, this turns out to be coverage of Paul McCartney’s infamous Japan arrest.
— Whoa, a Weekend Update segment right at the beginning of the episode. There’s something you don’t see every day.  Boy, this feels strange.
— Some really funny lines during Bill and Jane’s day-by-day analysis of the McCartney arrest.
— This use of Father Guido Sarducci is a good change of pace for him, and the concept of him carrying a luggage full of marijuana just to intentionally get himself arrested is pretty funny.
— I like Sarducci’s way of sneaking in hidden cries of help to us viewers.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Peter Aykroyd, Jim Downey, and a mustached Brian Doyle-Murray receive their very first featured player credit tonight.

  

— Wow, there are A LOT of featured players credited tonight in general – about 7 or 8 of them. Geez. It’s funny how much larger the featured player cast is than the repertory cast.


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Sorry, folks, I blinked and missed this whole monologue!
— But seriously, as I briefly mentioned in my review of Candice Bergen’s December 1975 monologue, this Teri Garr monologue has to be the shortest in SNL history (Bergen’s aforementioned monologue is probably a close second). It literally only consists of her saying that she’s happy to be there, and that there’s so much show to get to tonight that they’re just going to go right ahead with it. The End.
— I wonder what the story behind this lack of a monologue is. How do you not write a funny monologue for Teri freakin’ Garr? I feel bad that they just left her out there to awkwardly and clumsily segue into the rest of the show. To her credit, she looked game and upbeat, at least.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


CRAIG’S TRAVELER’S CHECKS
— Rerun


CAUCUS
presidential hopefuls do chores for housewife (host); John Anderson cameo

         

— Feels kinda weird seeing George Bush being played by anyone not named Dana Carvey. Jim Downey seems to be attempting some kind of voice, but it’s not sounding very Bush-esque to me. Then again, this is 1980; people back then probably weren’t as familiar with Bush’s voice as they would become years later.
— Yes! The return of Bill’s hilarious Ted Kennedy.
— Gilda’s walk-on receives some audience applause, despite the fact that she’s just playing a random supporting character. Shows how popular Gilda was around this time. She also received a huge amount of cheers earlier tonight during the opening montage.
— Funny inclusion of Laraine’s Rosalyn Carter. This is reminding me that SNL would strangely go through this whole season without ANYONE portraying the president (Jimmy Carter). Couldn’t Shearer have given it a shot?
— Great Chappaquiddick reference with Bill’s Kennedy offering to drive Teri’s car.
— There’s Garrett’s sloppy, stumbly delivery once again……
— This is turning out to be a great showcase for the featured players.
— Tom Davis is giving a really good performance in this.
— Is that an audience member shown as John B. Anderson at the end of the sketch?
STARS: ***½


DEBS BEHIND BARS
jailed preppies (host), (JAC), (GIR) try to survive

     

— It’s kinda funny hearing the awkward audience sounds in the background during the intro photos of the women.
— I feel like this is parodying a movie I’m not familiar with.
— There’s Garrett in drag as a sassy woman once again……
— Are we supposed to believe there’s glass between Bill and Teri, because there clearly isn’t one.
— Is Laraine playing a real person? The name Gloria Vanderbilt sounds familiar.
— Funny blooper when Laraine’s earring falls off and then after staring at the camera with a mock(?) panicked facial expression (fourth screencap above), she quickly whips off her other earring right before the camera cuts away.
— The voice Peter Aykroyd’s using in this sketch sounds a lot like his brother Dan.
— Didn’t care for the ending preview scene with the girls meeting their male counterparts, and it went on too long for my likes.
— Overall, despite a few parts, I did not enjoy this much. It feels like too much of it went over my head.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Rock Lobster”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Big Vic Ricker (HAS) discusses the Super Bowl & possible Olympic boycott
college student (PEA) tells LAN why he supports the draft
keep gold prices high & get an Al Franken Decade medallion, says ALF

       

— Feels weird seeing Update again tonight, after the early appearance it made in the cold opening.
— I liked the “Perrier Spill” bit.
— These last few Updates, they keep using that funny Alan Zweibel picture (second screencap above) in different contexts. It seems to have become a running gag.  It’ll be funny to see how long they keep it going.
— Ah, a new Update character. Feels like it’s been a while since Harry last had a really big role.
— Harry’s doing great as this character and I like his delivery.
— Good little part with Harry throwing to a videotape only to realize they don’t have one.
— A Laraine remote segment, which is also doubling as a rare Peter Aykroyd showcase.
— That’s it? The Laraine/Peter commentary is over already? I guess it was a funny quick gag, but I was hoping this would give Peter more to do, after he won me over in that “Java Junkie” short in the last episode.
— Bill’s commentary about fat people was really funny.
— We’re getting yet another guest commentator. Wow, this is one long Update. Unusual for this era.
— After appearing on Update in a string of consecutive episodes earlier this season, Al Franken returns.
— Oh, it’s a follow-up on the Al Franken Decade bit.
— The commemorative Al Franken coin was pretty funny.
— Haha, I love the part with Al passing off a penny as an “Abraham Lincoln Medallion”.
STARS: ***


ANCHOVY COUNCIL OF AMERICA
new ads for the Anchovy Council by (host) & (HAS) target black consumers

     

— As always, it feels weird seeing Don Novello in a normal non-Father Guido Sarducci role.
— Tom Davis’ voice in this is pretty funny.
— There’s an odd part where, while Harry is giving a long explanation of anchovy research, the camera holds for a VERY long time on a random close-up of Bill grimacing and smirking out of character while hesitantly chewing on some anchovies. (fourth screencap above) During a discussion of this sketch on an old SNL messageboard years ago, someone there had a theory that Bill must’ve had a strong hate for anchovies and, knowing this, the people at SNL played a bit of a joke on him by showing a very-lengthy close-up of him making sour faces while eating the anchovies.
— When the camera finally cuts away from that lengthy close-up of Bill, Jane can be seen staring at him kinda funnily.
— This one guy in the audience has a loud standout laugh that I keep hearing throughout the sketch.
— I loved Harry’s little “I’m glad we all understand averaging” comment.
— Another amusing quick comment from Harry, with him ad-libbing a humorously obvious “It hasn’t started yet” while he was waiting for the videotape to start playing.
— The scene with Garrett and Yvonne Hudson is really good. Why do I feel like this anchovy-loving couple of theirs is the same as their bad clam-loving couple?
— Heh, funny ending to the Garrett/Yvonne scene, with Garrett immediately asking “Glass of water, please?” as soon as the director yelled “cut”.
— Overall, this sketch had several good aspects but I feel some shortening needed to be done, as this sketch felt too long and some parts dragged.
STARS: **½


BAD PLAYHOUSE
a production of The Great Mr. Potatohead Famine

     

— Whaaaa? A “Bad (insert type of play here)” sketch WITHOUT Aykroyd???
— Hmm, Laraine as “Lady Pinth-Garnell”.
— Laraine’s intro wasn’t too good. Dan usually got more laughs than that during his intros in these.
— A fairly funny weird play so far.
— I like Bill’s walk-on.
— What in the world happened at the beginning of Bill’s song? I’m guessing he missed his cue to start singing? Throughout his song, it looks like he and Gilda are both trying to keep from laughing. (second-to-last screencap above)
— Overall, the play had a funny first half, but it ran out of steam for me halfway through and I lost interest. Also, Laraine as the female Leonard Pinth-Garnell did not work for me AT ALL.
STARS: **½


BABY MOGUL
baby mogul Paula Kirsch (LAN) & Marilyn Nasalman (GIR) negotiate a deal

   

— Gilda’s wearing the same wig from the sexual harassment meeting sketch in the last episode.
— Wait, this is the return of Laraine’s child psychologist character? Wow, I didn’t know they ever made that character recurring.
— Laraine’s childlike crying was scarily realistic. Very dead-on.
— Overall, there’s not much I can find to say about this sketch. A lot of the performances were solid, especially Laraine’s, but I got pretty bored during the sketch after a while. That seems to have become a theme with these last few sketches. Man, what’s happening to the show tonight? There’s too many sketches that are overlong and/or have trouble keeping their momentum the whole way through.
STARS: **½


MR. BILL GETS HELP
by Walter Williams- Mr. Hands employs hypnosis

       

— Well, we haven’t seen this character in a while, so no initial groan from me tonight.
— Funny visual of the psychiatrist having his face hidden.
— I kinda liked the part with a flattened Spot being used as a Christmas tree ornament.
— I enjoyed the hellish, trippy nightmare sequence featuring Mr. Hands and Sluggo.
— This is the first time they’ve shown the “The Mr. Bill Show” title this season.
— Overall, wow, I’m surprised by how much I didn’t hate this. I guess Mr. Bill still has a little of that old spark left in him when they space his appearances out more. What kind of alternate universe am I in where I enjoyed a Mr. Bill film more than I enjoyed most of the night’s sketches?
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Dance This Mess Around”

— Strangely, before the performance ends, the camera cuts to a bumper picture of Teri Garr and stays on it for a long time as we can faintly hear the performance continuing and then concluding. The show must’ve been running late. I wonder if that also explains the sloppy camerawork throughout this song.


GOODNIGHTS

  

— Oh, it turns out that “audience member” who was shown at the end of the Caucus sketch was actually the real John B. Anderson.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— SNL begins the 1980s with a underwhelming, below average episode. As I said earlier, a lot of the sketches suffered from having an overlong, dragging feel and had a hard time keeping the momentum they started with. There at least weren’t any sketches that were flat-out terrible, but there also weren’t any sketches that I feel stood out as particularly strong, either. With this episode, I get the feeling I’ve officially reached the beginning of the infamous downhill slide of season 5.
— Teri Garr came off likable (as usual), but I wasn’t crazy about the way SNL utilized her tonight. It feels like they kinda wasted her with too many generic female roles. To say nothing of that poor excuse for a monologue she was handed. As funny as Teri is, she doesn’t seem to have much luck with hosting good SNL episodes, as I’ve always found her season 11 episode to be absolutely wretched. I can’t remember how her season 9 episode goes, but I’m assuming it’s a good episode just based on the fact that SNL was generally in better shape in season 9 than they were in seasons 5 and 11.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ted Knight):
— a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Chevy Chase

Posted on

December 22, 1979 – Ted Knight / Desmond Child & Rouge (S5 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
from Panama, Shah Pahlevi (BIM) celebrates Christmas with friends

     

— The return of Bill’s impression of The Shah.
— The pinata was pretty funny.
— Interesting way to work in Gilda’s Baba Wawa, who SNL has (wisely) been using very sparingly these last two seasons.  Her wig looks different tonight.
— Haha, we get the debut of Al Franken’s Henry Kissinger impression, which I remember he would later do quite a number of times in the mid-late 80s era. Franken’s impression is a lot more accurate than the one Belushi used to do, and is really funny.
— Overall a pretty good way to start tonight’s Christmas episode.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host admits he’s Steve Martin’s long-lost father & does his son’s act

   

— Heh, he randomly begins the monologue immediately acting like Steve Martin, doing Steve’s whole act (arrow-through-head, microphone electrocution, etc.)
— Funny bit with him revealing he’s Steve Martin’s father.
— Ted to Steve: “I rambled into Texas… and your mother.”
STARS: ***½


DIFF’RENT STORKS
to boost sagging ratings, NBC adds more Gary Coleman to its lineup

 

— A pretty funny quick sendup of NBC’s ratings troubles at the time, by having them desperately milking one of their very few then-current hit shows (“Diff’rent Strokes”).
STARS: ***


CHUDD HARASSMENT CASE
grievance board pretends to care about (JAC)’s sexual harassment charges

   

— Am I in for another dull “group meeting” sketch, like the Teacher’s Strike sketch from the last episode?
— A sketch about sexual assault allegations.
— Bill, regarding his secretary: “I got her ‘Charlie’ for Christmas”. What does that mean?
— I like Gilda’s character. Why do I feel like I’ve seen Gilda in that wig before?
— Shearer agreeing with Ted about women being attracted to men with power was pretty funny.
— Loved Jane’s angry delivery of “You slime!!!”
— Ted sounded really funny during his “ashamed” crying outburst.
— I bet as soon as the ladies leave, Ted’s going to immediately drop the “crying” act and start laughing out loud with the other men.
— I was right.
— And that’s the ending? Meh, I was hoping there’d be more to it. That was a weak, predictable way to end this.
STARS: **½


POLICE P.S.A.
at holiday time, police officer (host) has tough words for the public

 

— Ha, Ted’s cop character being named “Bob Kopp” is really funny to me for some reason.
— The way Ted said “I’m tellin’ ya once!” cracked me up.
— Uh… that’s it? This was very short and seemed completely pointless.
STARS: *½ (the ½ is only for Ted’s performance)


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Tumble In The Night”

— Why’d Gilda introduce this performance instead of Ted?
— Hey, it’s a young-looking, short-haired G.E. Smith as the musical guest’s guitarist! (screencap below)


THE TONIGHT SHOW
(no synopsis available)

— A continuation of the “NBC is shoving Gary Coleman down our throats” premise from earlier.
— As silly as the idea seems, I could actually picture 70s-era Gary Coleman guest-hosting The Tonight Show. On a similar note, is it strange that I think it would’ve been interesting if he had hosted an SNL episode sometime during the early years of “Diff’rent Strokes”?
STARS: ***


WEEKEND UPDATE
Roseanne Roseannadanna goes from picking a charity to thawing Gene Shalit

     

— Good bit about Bill having nude snapshots of Jane.
— That Tony Orlando “Quote of the Year” never gets old.
— We haven’t seen Roseanne Rosannadanna in a while, thankfully. I’m glad they’re going lighter on her this season.
— That being said, I still didn’t care for her overall commentary tonight. Only part I liked was the story of her mistaking Gene Shalit for a poodle. The rest: meh. If you’ve seen one Roseanne Rosannadanna Update commentary, you’ve pretty much seen them all.
STARS: ***


NERDS NATIVITY
(host) directs Todd, Lisa, other nerds during Christmas pageant rehearsal

         

— Ah, the Nerds Nativity sketch that I’ve always heard about. Wasn’t there some controversy over this sketch, or a story that there was something the censors refused to allow in it?
— Franken’s making me laugh as the wiseass student.
— LOL at Alan Zweibel as a donkey.
— Interesting seeing Harry Shearer in a very un-Harry Shearer-like role.
— Loved the tense build-up of a seething Ted slowly walking over to seemingly confront Bill, only to end up simply telling him “Consider yourself warned.”
— Overall, this was fine, but not one of my favorite Nerds sketches. Compared to other Nerds outings, this was a little too slow-moving for my likes.
STARS: ***


ANDY KAUFMAN
Andy Kaufman & Diana Peckham [real] wrestle; Buddy Rogers cameo

       

— Here’s the follow-up to Andy’s challenge from a few episodes ago.
— Interesting… uh… hair on that Buddy Rogers…
— Haha, I love how they have security guards and a barber waiting by the side in case Andy loses the match.
— I’m starting to like this long set-up to the match.
— Andy comes out onstage to a huge chorus of boos and hisses from the audience.
— LOL at Andy intentionally pissing off the audience even further with his little message to female audience members, telling them to cook him a meal if he wins.  His smug smile after saying that was hilarious, too. (sixth screencap above)
— It’s amusing me hearing the various things the audience is exclaiming  throughout the match. So unusual seeing all this on SNL.
— The crowd went fucking WILD when the girl started pinning Andy.
— Haha, I keep hearing a guy in the audience bellowing out helpful directions to the girl.
— Andy denies the girl her extra minute after the match has ended. The audience is absolutely FURIOUS at him right now.
— Overall, another fascinating Kaufman wrestling segment.
STARS: ****½


BOB HOPE’S CHRISTMAS IN TEHRAN
Bob Hope’s Christmas In Teheran features Gary Coleman

— The Gary Coleman gag continues.
— It’s getting old now.
— Boy, that doctored photo of Coleman looks terrible.
STARS: **


SAMMY SELTZER JR.
Sammy Seltzer, Jr. lets you stomach Sammy Davis, Jr.’s (GAM) overexposure

 

— Ha, is this Garrett’s so-bad-it’s-good Sammy Davis Jr. impression that we haven’t seen in a long time?
— Yep, it is.
— Garrett as Sammy: “This Christmas, I’ll be saturating the media everywhere you turn.” Oh, you mean just like Gary Coleman?
— This turns into a random Alka-Seltzer parody. I’m guessing the real Sammy was doing Alka-Seltzer ads at the time.
— Overall, funny idea, I guess, but the execution of it was just plain weird. I’m not sure what to make of it.
STARS: **


JAVA JUNKIE
by TOS- (Teri Garr) abets (PEA)’s coffee jones

         

— “Java Junkie”. I’ve always heard this being mentioned as one of Schiller’s most memorable SNL films.
— “Starring Peter Aykroyd”. This must be the Schiller film that I’ve recently been told features a great Peter Aykroyd performance.
— I wonder when SNL begins crediting Peter as a featured player in their opening montage. He’s had several speaking roles in some of the past few episodes and now gets to star in his own short film, but he’s yet to receive a featured player credit.
— A Teri Garr appearance. Always nice to see her, but it’s weird that she’s making a cameo tonight, considering she actually hosts the next episode. Maybe they didn’t have the next episode’s host/musical guest booked yet when they filmed this.
— I love this so far, and it has the perfect look and feel of a 1950s thriller.
— Very clever part with Peter’s rehab being at Maxwell House.
— Overall, man, that was freakin’ great. And Peter really WAS good in this, like I had been told. I’m aware that his overall SNL tenure ended up being very forgettable, but he can say he had at least one standout strong performance.
STARS: *****


CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS
(JAC)’s visiting father’s (host) gaudy holiday decorations irk everybody

   

— It appears this is going to be a take-off of families that get ridiculously over-the-top with their Christmas decorations.
— Ha, Ted is perfect in this role.
— Funny bit about the complaint from the airport regarding the family’s Christmas lights.
— Hilarious how Ted had hired three actual actors to stand in a nativity display in the yard.
— Garrett: “Man, we gettin’ frostbite standin’ in that display!”
— When rattling off asinine ideas for Halloween decorations at the very end of the sketch, I liked Ted saying “We’ll dig up Bela Lugosi!”
STARS: ****


IRAN: THE COUNTRY AND THE CRISIS
more Gary Coleman in an NBC special

 

— Yep, this gag has been run into the ground, even if that’s kinda the point.
— Announcer: “After the late news where you can’t see the guy.” I don’t get it; what was that referring to?
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Goodbye Baby”


GOODNIGHTS

  

— What was with the “’Human Fly’ footage furnished by…” credit? (third screencap above) I don’t remember seeing any Human Fly clip in this episode. Must’ve been in a sketch that got cut for time.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— SNL ends the 1970s with a pretty good episode. While there was a number of weak segments, there was also some really strong stuff after Update (Java Junkie, Kaufman wrestling, Christmas Decorations), and the overall show had a good vibe, even when things weren’t quite working. And as expected, Ted Knight was a fun host and added quite a lot to the sketches with his humorous performances.
— I’m still waiting to see ANY evidence of the alleged cast burnout that I’ve always heard about this season. The cast seems fairly energetic in the episodes I’ve covered so far. I guess the burnout doesn’t start showing until sometime in the second half of the season, which I hear is also the point where this season in general really starts falling apart.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Martin Sheen):
— a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
For the first time in my SNL project, we enter a new decade! Teri Garr hosts the first SNL of the 80s.

Posted on

December 15, 1979 – Martin Sheen / David Bowie (S5 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
(BIM) undergoes a cheap & quick sex-change operation

    

— Is the childhood picture they showed of Bill’s character a real-life picture of Bill himself as a kid? (screencap below) Probably not, which is too bad, because I always like seeing what SNL cast members looked like as kids.

— In my recent season 4 finale review, I mentioned how the “Not For Transsexuals Only” sketch feels odd to watch in today’s transsexualism-sensitive climate. Well, that goes double for this cold opening.
— Pretty funny premise with Bill choosing the less-expensive sex-change procedure, which he then immediately goes through right on the spot.
— Jane’s accent is both very realistic and is increasingly making me laugh.
— Fairly decent pay-off with the reveal that all the surgeons did for Bill’s “sex-change operation” was simply put a wig and dress on him.
— A funny little touch with the look Bill gave the camera after saying LFNY.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— Al Franken receives his first credit as a featured player, a title he’d be credited under for MANY years, on-and-off, until 1995.


MONOLOGUE
host solicits donations for Toys For Tarts- give gifts to needy hookers

 

— Martin, regarding tonight’s show: “We’re going to be doing some very funny business… at least they think it’s funny.”
— The “Toys For Tarts” campaign for prostitutes is a pretty funny bit.
STARS: ***


LE SHOE
Le Shoe is ugly footwear, but its French aura makes it fashionable

   

— Tom Schiller’s brief appearance made me laugh. For some reason, whenever he plays ethnic or foreign-accented characters, he reminds me so much of future cast member Fred Armisen.
— Overall, this was a pretty forgettable, nothing-special parody of French weirdness.
STARS: **


DARK SHADOWS
in her bedroom, little girl (GIR) cries wolf over nighttime spooks

       

— I remember this classic sketch well; I believe I saw this in an old SNL Halloween compilation special back when I first started becoming an SNL fan.
— Feels like we rarely see Gilda play little girls anymore at this late stage of SNL’s 70s era.
— LOL at Garrett slowly sneaking in Gilda’s dark room and lighting up a cigarette.
— I like the reveals of what the “monsters” actually are and how the parents are treating it like its normal, especially the family of gypsies randomly being under the bed.
— Holy hell, the brief glimpse of a bloodied grotesque monstrous creature in the closet was both very funny AND genuinely unsettling, and got a hilarious audience reaction. The close-up of Gilda’s silent reaction is fantastic, too.
— Great ending.
STARS: *****


TEACHER’S STRIKE
striking teachers debate whether to accept school board’s latest offer

   

— The opening close-up of a board of scheduled events noticeably lists, among other events, a Knights of Columbus meeting, which I take it is a reference to a certain recurring sketch from season 4.
— I got a good surprised laugh from Bill’s snarky “You got the hots for the black ones” comment to Jane.
— Bill is great in this sketch with his attitude and constant wisecracks.
— Gilda’s pretty funny as the nitpicky English teacher.
— Overall, despite some funny characterizations, I was not a fan of this sketch and found most of it dull.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Man Who Sold The World”


WEEKEND UPDATE
JAC solicits Christmas cards sent out of pity to “Poor Pahlevi”
BIM implicitly slams two former SNL castmembers while panning 1941
Father Guido Sarducci performs his duties as spokesman for Mr. Tea

      

— We’re getting more hidden background gags regarding the international clocks on the Update set. This time, I’ve noticed the clock behind Jane is labeled “Lunch Time”.
— Liked Bill’s delivery of “I ain’t givin’ this sucker back to nobody” when quoting a black guy carrying a stereo on his shoulder.
— Ah, now I’ve noticed the clock behind Bill is labeled “Good Time”.
— This segment with Bill giving his opinions on upcoming movies (Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Jerk, 1941, etc.) looks like it’s going to be awesome.
— Was Bill really cut out of “The Jerk” like he says here?
— Bill’s discussion of “1941” is hilarious with him cruelly snubbing Belushi and Aykroyd while acting like other stars of that movie were the ones who recently left the SNL cast.
— Loved how Bill’s movie segment ended with him urging the audience to just “take your kids to see Meatballs again”.
— The audience is liking Father Guido Sarducci’s “Mr. Tea” demonstration a lot more than I am. I don’t get it; is “Mr. Tea” a real product?
— Sarducci’s “Big Christmas, Little Christmas” idea is kinda interesting, but not exactly funny.
— Overall, bah, Sarducci’s overall commentary did pretty much nothing for me. Boy, does this character get kinda tiring every now and then. And from what I’ve heard, I still have A LOT more appearances from him to put up with for the remainder of this season. *groan*
STARS: **½


APOCALYPSE NOW
(host) embarks on a mission to terminate production of Apocalypse Now

           

— Geez, that creepy long opening close-up of Martin’s upside-down face…….
— Oh, I see this is an Apocalypse Now take-off.
— I like how this sketch is about Apocalypse Now’s troubled production, as I’ve always been fascinated by all the horror stories of what a nightmare it was to film that movie.
— LOL at the foot-paddling boat scene with Garrett and Martin, while Garrett’s agitatedly ranting to Martin.
— I’m liking the many scene changes. I appear to be in the middle of yet another epic, mini-movie-type sketch that the show was really good at doing around this time.
— Hey, it’s Akira Yoshimura!
— Who’s the extra playing Marlon Brando? Man, I miss Belushi.
— The studio audience doesn’t seem into this anymore; they’ve been pretty dead for a while.
— Haha, I’m loving Bill as Francis Ford Coppola. His portrayal of him is very funny.
— Decent ending with the set explosion while “This Is the End” plays.
— Overall, a very long sketch, but I found it interesting and well-done, even if there weren’t that many laugh-out-loud parts throughout it. I may be biased due to my aforementioned fascination with Apocalypse Now’s backstory.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “TVC-15”

 


FIRST LOVE
by Aviva Slesin- BIM visits his old canine flame

   

— Another Aviva Slesin film.
— Oh, it’s another “First Love” film, like the Jane Curtin/Walter Cronkite one from the last episode.
— What’s with the random light applause from one audience member during the opening narration sequence?
— Ah, Bill’s the focus of the film this time.
— Judging from the descriptions Bill’s giving, I can already tell that the big reveal is that his first love, “Fanny”, will turn out to be either a horse or dog.
— I was right, it’s a dog.
— Eh, I’m not caring too much for this so far,
— And that’s it? It’s over. Overall, this was a letdown.
STARS: **


FOREVEREADY
(BIM) taunts Foreveready spokesman Robert Conrad (host) & dad (BDM)

     

— This feels so specific, that it must be a then-topical parody of a real Robert Conrad ad from the time.
— Bill easily punching out Martin gave me a laugh.
— Fairly funny how this is devolving into Sheen’s Conrad turning into a whining bullied child.
— There’s Brian Doyle Murray in what feels like his first on-camera appearance all season. I know he eventually begins receiving a featured player credit at some point later this season.
— Whoa at Bill’s line “You’re almost as big a dick as your son.” Heh, how in the world did SNL get away with saying that in freakin’ 1979?
— I always like anytime we get to see Murray brothers Bill and Brian interacting with each other in a sketch. Bill pushing and tripping Brian over a bent-down Tom Davis was quite a sight here.
STARS: ***


MURDER
criminals (host) & (GAM) kill any potential witnesses to their evil deeds

       

— Haha, I’m loving the escalation of this, with the ridiculous growing number of innocent bystanders Garrett and Martin have to shoot for “knowing too much”.
— Heh, now the phone is ringing. Lemme guess: they’re somehow gonna shoot the person over the phone for “knowing too much”?
— Nope, didn’t happen. Would’ve been funny, though.
— Overall, I loved this. This sketch felt atypical of this season, and came off more like something that would’ve appeared earlier in the show’s run, during the first two seasons.
STARS: ****


MINOTA AM3
Minota AM-3 camera- for special moments, like Bruce Jenner (host) divorce

   

— Another sketch with Martin playing a celebrity doing a commercial.
— I think Bill has appeared in literally every single sketch tonight so far.
— LOL, it just dawned on me how unintentionally hilarious it is in retrospect that the same episode that began with a sex-change operation cold opening also contains a Bruce Jenner sketch.
— Overall, I didn’t get this at all. This was incredibly short, the “taking a picture of your divorce proceedings” premise came off weak to me, and this commercial spoof seemed a little TOO topical to still hold up well today.
STARS: *½


REVISIONS OF FREUDIAN THEORY
TOD tells ALF about the nasal stage

— There seems to be a lot more sketches than usual tonight.
— Oh, is this a disguised “Franken and Davis Show” piece? Has “The Franken and Davis Show” officially been retired this season?
— Eh, not too funny so far.
— The “penis shame” bit at the end had some laughs and ALMOST saved the sketch.
— Yet another short sketch tonight.
STARS: **


MARTIN SHEEN HAIRSPRAY
host is JAC’s favorite styling aid

   

— A mock-commercial playing on Martin Sheen’s name. Is this what paved the way for future mock-commercials like “Jon Hamm’s John Ham”, “Peter Sarsgaard’s Sars Guards”, and the like?
— Haha, the Martin Sheen “hairspray” just being him deadpan-ly spitting into Jane’s hair is great.
— Overall, that was very  silly but I found it hilarious.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Boys Keep Swinging”

 

— Wow, how in the world did they film this technique? Also, when Fred Armisen (man, I’m mentioning him quite a bit in this review) later did a Bowie tribute on SNL when Bowie passed in 2016, I think this is the performance he talked about being amazed by as a kid in ’79.


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— After three strong consecutive episodes, it looks like we’re back to the usual Season 5 shakiness. Not too great of an episode tonight; there were some good highlights, but the overall show was way too up-and-down, strangely feeling like it followed some kind of good-sketch-bad-sketch-good-sketch-bad-sketch pattern.
— This episode had the largest number of sketches in quite a while. I was surprised at how many quick little sketches they fit into the second half of the show. I had gotten so used to the “longer sketches, shorter number of overall segments” format the show’s regularly been using since the back half of season 4.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Howard Hesseman):
— a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
The 1970s come to an end. Ted Knight hosts the final episode of the decade.

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December 8, 1979 – Howard Hesseman / Randy Newman (S5 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
Great Moments In Rock & Roll- James Brown (GAM) abandons Scottish music

   

— Oh, this is going to be a James Brown parody? Uh-oh, I don’t think I’m looking forward to seeing Garrett horribly butcher an impression of him.
— That’s Peter Aykroyd as the guy Garrett’s talking to, right? In certain angles, I can see a very-slight physical resemblance to his brother Dan.
— I’m actually liking Garrett in this.
— Haha, the Scottish version of James Brown’s “Please, Please, Please” is pretty funny, and I’m genuinely liking Jane, Laraine, and Gilda’s background singing.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— Don Novello receives his first credit as a featured player.


MONOLOGUE
to guard against extremism, host leads audience in a pro-restraint chant

  

— I like the (then-contemporary) Betamax mention, simply for retrospective historical purposes.
— Mr. Bill reference.
— Howard’s doing great leading the audience in various chants.
— Was the unseen audience member’s “What if it takes forever?” a scripted bit?
— Overall, a strong monologue with good energy, thanks to Howard. He’s always been good at doing monologues that get the audience involved, judging from what I’ve heard about some of his later monologues from the early 80s.
STARS: ****


THE BEL AIRABS
(host) & (GAM) try to steal fortune of Abdul (DON) & kin

       

— Bel-Airabs! I remember really liking the installment of this recurring sketch that I once saw years ago, though it wasn’t the one from this episode; it was the installment from the Chevy Chase episode later this season.
— The Beverly Hillbillies-esque theme song and opening credits is brilliant, as is the overall concept of this whole sketch.
— I liked Bill painting pubic hair onto the Venus De Milo statue.
— Gilda as a wild, high-pitched foreign gibberish-screaming, burqa-wearing Granny is absolutely hilarious to me.
— Feels weird seeing Don Novello playing such a big non-Father Guido Sarducci role after I’ve gotten so used to seeing him as only Sarducci lately.
— Wow, Jane is dead-on as Nancy Kulp’s Beverly Hillbillies character (I forgot her name).
— How’d they pull off that hand-chopping bit so fast?
— Funny subtle joke with Kareem Abdul Jabbar being listed among the middle-eastern names in the scrolling ending credits.
— Overall, that was great.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “It’s Money That I Love”
musical guest performs “Pants”


WEEKEND UPDATE
paternity suit victim Chico Escuela on backboard-shatterer Darryl Dawkins
ALF says goodbye to the selfish ’70s & introduces the Al Franken Decade

      

— Random Update joke about Chico Escuela. Is this going to lead into a commentary from him?
— Yep, it did. First time we’ve seen him all season.
— We get a clip of yet another Daryl Dawkins backboard-shattering incident.
— Chico’s “rubber breaks” comment was great.
— Third episode in a row with Al Franken doing an Update commentary. I wonder why they have yet to begin crediting him as a featured player in the opening montage this season.
— Oh, this is going to be the famous Al Franken Decade bit. From the clip I had seen of this in the past, I had always assumed this came from the final episode of 1979 (the upcoming Ted Knight episode).
— I like how they keep displaying Al’s name and occupation on the bottom of the screen whenever he says “me: Al Franken”.
— Overall, a fantastic and memorable Franken commentary, made even better in retrospect by the fact that he would later do follow-ups to this at the end of the next two decades.
STARS: ***½


OLD FLAME
(GIR) explores personal growth with old (BIM) & new (host) boyfriends

 

— So far, this appears to be a quieter, realistic, slice-of-life type of sketch that we haven’t been seeing much of anymore in this late stage of SNL’s 70s era.
— I liked Howard’s “I’m starting to feel bad now” after sitting through Bill and Gilda’s sappy conversation.
— I got a good surprised laugh from Howard’s “candy ass” comment. I didn’t even know that was a term yet in the 70s.
— Interesting semi-touching ending with Gilda.
STARS: ****


STEREO 105
WKRP star host shares studio time with real deejay Steve Marvin (HAS)

   

— Ah, a radio show sketch starring Harry Shearer. This is gonna be good.
— Interesting backhanded comment from Howard regarding CBS moving WKRP in Cincinnati’s timeslot. That’s probably Howard venting some real-life frustration with how CBS infamously kept screwing over his show.
— Howard confusedly trying to follow Harry’s hand signals is good.
— I’m loving the authenticity of how they’re making this feel like we’re at a real radio show. Lots of good little details, especially in Harry’s performance.
— Harry’s asinine statements are getting funnier and funnier.
— Great part with Howard grabbing Harry by the throat to get some words in.
— Howard’s been doing a good job with his slowly-mounting frustration throughout the whole sketch.
— Do they eventually make this sketch recurring? I had recently heard that Harry does a particularly great radio sketch later this season in (I think) the Elliott Gould episode, and I’m wondering if that one is a sequel to tonight’s radio show sketch.
STARS: ****


THE NUCLEAR FAMILY
radiation-sick power plant neighbors are lethargic

    

— Just judging from the title and opening credits sequence, why do I think this sketch sounds like something from the 81-82 season?
— Hey, it’s Peter Aykroyd once again. With all these somewhat-big speaking roles he’s been getting in this episode, why wasn’t he credited in tonight’s opening montage?
— I initially said this sketch looks like a premise from the 81-82 season, but now this sketch is starting to remind me a little of the “Those Unlucky Andersons” sketch the show would later do in the 85-86 season.
— The glow-in-the-dark stomach ending was decent.
— Overall, I’m not quite sure what to think of this sketch, but I guess I found it okay enough.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Story of a Rock & Roll Band”


FIRST LOVE
by Aviva Slesin- JAC keeps missing Walter Cronkite

   

— “Aviva Films, N.Y.” Looks like this is going to be another Aviva Slesin film. Much like her(?) two films from last season, is this going to be another Bill Murray-starring film centered on animals?
— Ah, a film starring Jane Curtin. There’s something you don’t see everyday in this era.
— I’m liking the drawn-out awkwardness of this.
— Good slow reveal that she doesn’t actually know Walter Cronkite.
— Never mind, it turns out she DOES actually know him.
— Who’s doing Kronkite’s voice over the phone? Doesn’t sound like it’s Bill.
— Nice ending.
— Overall, a good showcase for Jane, who continues to have a strong season.
STARS: ***½


THE HOLIDAY INN HORROR
maid (GIR) repeatedly disturbs guests’ slumber

     

— Judging from how Gilda looks in her initial walk-on, is this going to be her Rosa Santangelo (“I clean up, okay?”) character?
— Yep, it is.
— Judging from how Dan Aykroyd-ish the voice-over narrator sounds, I think that’s once again Peter Aykroyd in yet another speaking role tonight.
— Gilda using an axe to get through the door is very funny.
— This has the reliable sketch comedy trope of presenting an everyday annoyance as the subject of a horror movie. This sketch also feels like something that would’ve fit perfectly among the various bad horror movie trailers in Christopher Lee’s season 3 monologue.
— Loved Howard’s appearance as the cruel desk clerk.
— Overall, a very good closing sketch.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Really solid episode, with every single segment working, some of which were very well-written and performed.
— Howard Hesseman was a great host, which is no surprise considering both his improv background and how good a recurring host I’ve heard he was later on in the Ebersol era.
— The show has been on a strong winning streak these last three episodes. Can’t help but wonder when this season goes back to being shaky again. Also, I’ve always heard that the cast comes off really burned-out this season (I’ve especially been keeping my eye on Garrett, as it’s known that his drug problems reached its breaking point this season), but I have yet to see evidence of that so far, so I’m also wondering when that will start.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Bea Arthur):
— a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Martin Sheen

Posted on

November 17, 1979 – Bea Arthur / The Roches (S5 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
Ronald Reagan’s aide (HAS) outlines candidate’s nap-filled schedule

 

— Who in the world is this guy in the make-up chair and who is he playing? He was addressed as “governor”, but I didn’t hear clearly when Laraine said his name.
— Haha, I get it now – the joke is it’s then-presidential candidate Ronald Reagan being played by an elderly extra, as a comical exaggeration of Reagan’s age.
— Shearer’s perfect in this as the aide, detailing Reagan’s extensive schedule in his usual impeccable delivery.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Love the way the theme music sounds tonight.
— Ah, not only is Harry Shearer finally back in the credits, but Tom Davis and Paul Shaffer receive their very first featured player credit, beginning a season-long trend of then-current writers being billed as featured players whenever they have a noteworthy role in the show.

 

— This is also the very first time in SNL history where featured players are actually announced under the title “Featuring…” instead of “And a little of…”


MONOLOGUE
after host sings “Let Me Love You,” pianist PAS passionately kisses her

  

— We get a serious musical number.
— Ha, great ending with Shaffer suddenly throwing Bea over the piano and making out with her.  He did something kinda like that at the end of Dyan Cannon’s monologue, too, back in season 1.
STARS: ***


SPUD BEER
boat people lift their spirits with the potato-based brew

   

— Hey, a sudden Spud Beer callback!
— I always love hearing the jingle, and it’s interesting how they updated the lyrics in this one.
— Can’t think of many other times in SNL history where they actually did a sequel to an earlier fake ad.
STARS: ***½


FIRST HE CRIES
(BIM) tries to cope with his wife’s (GIR) mastectomy

         

— Okay, I’ve always been curious about this sketch. From all the things I’ve heard about it over the years, it sounds like a semi-dramatic sketch that seems really heavy for SNL, dealing with such a serious, depressing subject matter.
— I recently learned they originally wanted to do this sketch the previous week with Buck Henry, but he declined due to the subject matter (which is an interesting turning-of-the-tables, as Buck’s usually the host who willingly does sketches that were turned down by other hosts). Which role would Buck have played, the husband? The doctor?
— Loved Bill’s comically overdramatic “Why me??!!” while looking skyward.
— The screen crawl is making me realize that this sketch is going to be more comedic than I had thought; I especially liked the part of the crawl that mentioned the “anguish of living with half a woman”.
— Bea snapping at Gilda is a funny turn, especially the line “You took away something very important to him.”
— Liked Bill dismissively referring to Gilda as “Miss Uniboob”.
— Good scene between Bill and Laraine.
— Great ending freeze frame with Bill grabbing Gilda’s butt.
— Ha, we get yet another variation of the “Mercy Killers” theme song, with Bill singing this sketch’s ending theme in the same melody as “Mercy Killers” and “The Black Shadow”. It’s gotten to the point where I instantly crack up as soon as I hear that melody at the end of a sketch. I’ve been told we get at least one more theme song in that style, in the Micro-Dentists sketch from later this season. I recall seeing that sketch before, but have no memory of a theme song in it.
— Overall, I’m surprised by how much I liked this. I got some good laughs all throughout, this was nowhere near as semi-depressing as earlier hearsay had me expecting it to be, I loved Bill’s performance, and I always enjoy the epic, mini-movie-type sketches this era does.
STARS: ****


DROP OUT
(TOD) not wanting to go to school leads to a Soviet takeover of the USA

     

— What in the world was that VERY loud, long mechanical squeaking sound at the beginning? Bill and Jane appeared to be trying to play it off like it was part of the sketch, but judging from the way the sketch has been going after the sound stopped, the sound seems too random to have been part of the sketch.
— Bill’s funny as the dad, but where is this going?
— Tom Davis’ frequent “fine with me”s are pretty funny.
— Haha, I now like where this is going. Looks like this is going to be another extensive sketch with multiple scenes and sets, much like the preceding sketch.
— The Russian invasion kitchen scene kinda started abruptly, almost as if something was edited out. (I’m reviewing the DVD version of the episode, as usual)
— Funny little bit at the end with one Russian soldier (was that Franken?) staying behind to eat the son’s waffle.
— Overall, this was a lot shorter than I had assumed it was going to be, but I enjoyed this sketch a lot.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bobby’s Song”


WEEKEND UPDATE
shattered backboard footage documents fate of unused DC-10 windshields
in the name of science, ALF uses various methods to torture live roaches
Hindenberg footage chronicles end of Thanksgiving parade Snoopy balloon

         

— I liked how a clip of the famous Darryl Dawkins backboard-shattering dunk was used to represent the DC-10 windshield. The joke isn’t terribly funny in itself, but I guess I just enjoy any excuse to see that Dawkins dunk clip.
— Ha, I just noticed that one of the international clocks on the wall behind Bill is simply labeled “A Clock” instead of the name of a state or country.
— Another Franken commentary. I believe this is going to be the infamous roach-killing bit I mentioned in the last review.
— Ah, it is.
— Was the idea for this Franken commentary inspired by the name of tonight’s musical guest, or is it just a coincidence?
— In a weird way, it’s ballsy to do a segment slowly killing live cockroaches on live TV.
— In the middle of Franken’s commentary, I now just noticed the two international clocks on the wall behind Jane are simply labeled, respectively, “A Clock” and “A Watch”. Heh, from now on, I’m going to watch out for the clocks in the rest of this season’s Updates to see if there are other hidden gags like this.
— Ha, I kinda like how Franken’s roach experiments are getting increasingly more ridiculous and sadistic.
— Overall, I’m not too sure how to feel about Franken’s commentary as a whole, but I didn’t completely hate it like a lot of SNL fans seem to.
— Geez, that Snoopy balloon/Hindenburg bit was awful, and deservedly got a tepid audience reaction. And unfortunately, THAT’S what they end tonight’s Update with.
STARS: **½


THANKSGIVING DINNER
eating Thanksgiving dinner in aunt’s (host) basement makes adults regress

   

— A pretty predictable direction this sketch is headed in, with the adults slowly acting like kids.
— Overall, while I initially wasn’t crazy about this premise, the performances gradually won me over and this ended up being an overall pretty fun sketch.
STARS: ***


WOMAN TO WOMAN
Connie Carson seeks downside to (host)’s ideal motherhood

— I’ve never been too crazy about this series of sketches.
— I liked Gilda’s stern delivery of “You heard me.”
— Okay, this sketch has started getting a little funnier with the drug story about Bea’s kids.
— Overall, there were a few decent moments, but as a whole, this was yet another “Woman To Woman” installment I wasn’t too crazy about. I hope this ends up being the final appearance of this sketch.
STARS: **½


SAVECO
Tom Clay tells why Saveco’s prices are low- they resell recalled products

  

— The return of Harry’s Tom Clay pitchman character from the Hotel-Motel Art Fair sketch earlier this season.
— Harry’s doing another great job as an insanely-fast-talking spokesperson, and I like the premise of this a lot.
STARS: ****


BACKER’S AUDITION
(PAS) & (HAS) preview their rock opera about Charles Manson & Jay Sebring

       

— There’s the same set from the party scene in First He Cries.
— Wow, tons of airtime for Paul Shaffer tonight.
— Interesting set-up to the song.
— Harry and Paul are making an interesting team.
— Strange sketch so far.
— Bill’s song and his overly intense singing style was hilarious.
— I don’t know what to think of this sketch anymore…
— Garrett’s psychotic “9” song is cracking me the hell up.
— MAN, this is one long sketch…
— Funny how into it Harry is in the background during Gilda and Bill’s duet.
— Overall, wow, I had a roller coaster of emotions watching this, constantly shifting from laughing-out-loud mode to either “What IS this?” or “This sketch is STILL going on?” But now that the sketch is over, I can recognize that it was actually very good and intriguingly weird. My occasional impatience with the length is probably just due to my natural dislike for Broadway-type musical sketches, but looking back on this sketch as a whole, I can put my anti-Broadway bias aside for now and admit that this was a strongly-written and strongly-performed sketch.
STARS: ****


MR. BILL BUILDS A HOUSE
by Walter Williams- Mr. Hands aids construction

     

— *groan*
— Okay, Mr. Bill and his trailer home being dragged by the car made me chuckle, I admit.
— Ugh, the rest of this just ended up being the usual “Mr. Bill gets dismembered over and over” stuff that does nothing for me anymore.
— I’ve been noticing that they haven’t been using the “The Mr. Bill Show” title screen in his shorts this season. Does that have anything to do with the then-ongoing legal battle over Mr. Bill’s ownership?
STARS: *½


CUBAN BEATLES
revival band Los Beatolos Cubanos performs Latin takes of Fab Four hits

  

— A pretty damn funny idea. I’m already liking this.
— Wow, I don’t recognize ANY of the performers playing the band.
— Okay, I’m starting to recognize some of them. There’s Paul Shaffer once again (wow, tonight’s really his night), I think that’s Tom Schiller as the lead singer, and MAYBE that’s Garrett as the drummer in the back? Who’s the tall one on the far right end of the screen? The mysterious Peter Aykroyd, perhaps? Alan Zweibel?
— Liked Bill’s testimonial.
— The scrolling list of song titles are really funny.
— Overall, a very solid short little sketch.
STARS: ****


ANDY KAUFMAN
Andy Kaufman [real] taunts female viewers & invites them to wrestle

  

— Well, this appearance came out of nowhere. Why wasn’t Andy credited in tonight’s opening montage like he always is whenever he’s making a guest appearance in an episode?
— His taunting rant about how he’ll be seen wrestling on every single show we watch is really funny.
— Boy, he is in full-on villain mode in this one. You can tell he is just ITCHING for viewers to hate him.
— Ha, there he goes once again intentionally riling up the studio audience with his sexist statements about women.
— Oh, it turns out this is just setting up an invitation for any female viewers to send in a letter accepting a challenge to wrestle Andy live on SNL’s upcoming Christmas episode. IIRC, SNL actually does end up following through on that.
— Bea’s deadpan post-Kaufman message was great.
— I like how this era has so much fan participation-type contests; stuff like Anyone Can Host, Find the Popes in the Pizza, Kill Morris the Cat, home movies, etc. Whatever happened to those days? I know it carries over into the early 80s a bit, where they would even go one step further by doing interesting live “call-in poll” gimmicks like the Larry the Lobster thing. But it’s too bad that fan participation events like that eventually goes away by the mid-80s.
STARS: N/A (not really a rateable segment)


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hallelujah Chorus”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A strong episode. There was some really solid writing and several great segments. I also like how this episode took a lot of risks with more ambitious, daring pieces, such as First He Cries, Backer’s Audition, and even Franken’s roach-torturing bit.
— Bea Arthur was a surprisingly forgettable host, carrying very little of the show and not being the comedic focus of anything. That’s pretty disappointing, considering I’ve always found her funny on shows like “Maude”; I came into this episode expecting her to be a good host.
— Very good night for featured players Harry Shearer and Paul Shaffer, both of who received tons of airtime for newbie standards and had a lot of really good performances. Shearer has been adding a breath of fresh air to the cast this season in general.
— After a shaky first three episodes of the season, tonight’s episode and the solid preceding episode with Buck Henry almost have me wondering if we’re experiencing a return to the greatness from seasons 3 & 4, but I’m aware that’s not how the remainder of this season plays out.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Buck Henry):
— a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Howard Hesseman

Posted on

November 10, 1979 – Buck Henry / Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (S5 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
saving Fred Silverman’s life in the Korean War wrote host’s ticket to SNL

   

— Funny beginning with anti-Buck picketers outside the studio. While it may have just been a joke here, it’s something SNL would later experience in reality when a certain now-president hosted in 2015.
— Wow, SNL’s really going all in tonight on this era’s traditional gag of Buck never getting any respect at the show.
— The war story about Buck had a great Fred Silverman twist.
— Jane finally gets her coveted first solo LFNY.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
security guards protect unfazed host from a mob that’s sick of seeing him

   

— Haha, security guards are on stage upon Buck’s entrance.
— Good bit with the audience constantly heckling Buck. Again, that’s something that would later become a real-life concern for SNL regarding the monologue when Trump hosted.
— I almost thought the guy who was stopped from angrily rushing the stage was Belushi, just based on his voice, before I remembered Belushi’s not on the show anymore.
— I love how Buck is oblivious to all the hate.
— The shot of the outside picketers tearing apart a dummy of Buck was fairly funny.
STARS: ***½


HARLEY’S BRISTOL CREME
rebuffed (GIR) settles on sharing Harley’s Bristol Cream with Honker

   

— Gilda’s rejected phone calls are fairly funny.
— I like how Gilda’s increasing desperation has now gotten to the point where she’s resorting to yelling out the window for a random guy.
— HA, great ending with the random guy who Gilda called up to her apartment turning out to be Bill’s Honker character!
STARS: ****


THE MYSTERY OF TOAD ISLAND
inbred residents have amphibian traits

   

— Oh my god at Laraine’s neck suddenly bulging like a frog’s. That caught me completely off-guard, and looks almost TOO realistic.
— After the initial shock has worn off, I don’t think I like where this sketch is going.
— Okay, yeah, I DEFINITELY don’t like where this is going. One of those thin-premised sketches where the humor fizzles out early right after the initial joke is revealed.
— Overall, boy, did I dislike this sketch. Why was this chosen as the lead-off sketch of the night?
STARS: *½


MATCHMAKER NERDS
Lisa & Todd try to get Marshall & Enid to go on a date

     

— It took the audience a few seconds to really get the “Todd works out with his right arm a lot” joke.
— The return of Buck as Todd’s dad, a character that was really funny last time he appeared.
— The Expo 67 story of how Buck lost his wife was pretty funny.
— Loved Todd’s frustrated reactions to his dad sending Lisa and Enid to the chess tournament.
— Overall, the usual solid Nerds sketch.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Refugee”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Jack Van Arks (ALF) defends the chemical industry with mundane facts
footage depicts enormous response to Find The Popes In The Pizza Contest
Father Guido Sarducci picks Find The Popes In The Pizza Contest winner

       

— What’s with Bill slowly moving the desk phone & phone wire during Jane’s first joke?
— Refreshing to see the debut of a new Update character. I can’t say enough how much Update is in desperate need of new characters at this point in the show’s run, considering the small range of recurring guests they keep cycling through every damn week.
— I almost thought at first that this was going to be Franken’s infamous roach-killing bit I’ve always heard about, but I think that’s actually in the following week’s Bea Arthur episode.
— Franken’s reaction to drinking H2SO4 cracked me up.
— A follow-up to the “Find the Popes in the Pizza” contest.
— Funny line from Sarducci about the SNL mailman not knowing what to do with a letter he found for Belushi.
— Overall, a good conclusion to the Popes/Pizza contest.
STARS: ***


BAD CLAMS
(GAM) & (YVH) feed Lucille Ball (GIR) rancid seafood

   

— Yes! Here’s a sketch I’ve always been dying to see, after hearing how great and weird it is.
— It feels strange seeing Yvonne Hudson with so many lines. This is probably bigger than any role she would ever get during her future Featured Player days the following season, where (from what I heard about that season) she was literally a glorified extra.
— I love the sudden shift from typical morning show banter to “Now who’s gonna eat these bad clams?”
— What an inexplicably insane concept.
— I always love the raspy voice Gilda uses as modern-day Lucille Ball.
— Gilda making her Catatonic Colleen face when eating the bad clams.
— Great little moment with Gilda doing the famous “Lucy cry” while having her face endlessly stuffed with the clams.
— This is pure craziness.
— Overall, that definitely lived up to all the hype I’ve heard over the years. Perfect length, too.
STARS: *****


HOW TO TALK TO YOUR GRANDPARENTS
record album helps youngsters get gifts

   

— Not too sure about this concept.
— Okay, I kinda like the part with the scrolling list of topics covered in the album, done in the same way commercials list off songs in a music album they’re advertising.
— Overall, eh, the humor was relatable, but this pretty much did nothing for me.
STARS: **


LIFE AFTER DEATH
by TOS- “take a number, be seated” experience recalled

  

— Is this film a rerun?
— Yep, they showed this one before. And I remember not caring for it the first time. Not one of Schiller’s better films.
— Is it just me, or were the graphics on the bottom of the screen that displays each testimonial-giver’s name and cause of death not there last time they aired this film?


SPECI-PAK
Speci-Pak carrying case keeps severed body parts fresh on way to hospital

     

— Buck coughing up a chunk of a mysterious internal organ was a great laugh.
— Ha, the above-mentioned coughing-up bit being followed by Bill’s “How often does this happen to you?” is great.
— Gilda cutting off her finger is another big laugh.
— This is humorously disgusting so far.
— Interesting device. I like this creative premise.
— Bill is fine as the pitchman, but man, just think of how fucking great Aykroyd would’ve done pitching this product.
STARS: ****


LOVE CONTRACT
during prenuptial talks, lawyers (host) & (HAS) break up (BIM) & (LAN)

   

— So once again, Harry Shearer DOES end up making an appearance after all, despite not being credited in the opening montage tonight. This is the second episode in a row that has happened. Why did they begin crediting him in the Eric Idle episode’s opening montage, only to take him out of the next two episodes’ montage, despite the fact that he’s appeared in noteworthy roles in both episodes?
— This has a clever, interesting premise.
— Bill’s ridiculous pet names for Laraine are pretty funny.
— I like the twist with Jane suddenly appearing as Bill’s other fiancee.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Don’t Do Me Like That”


DRIVING
(host) scares (JAC) & (GIR) during a desperate drive home for the toilet

   

— I’m already liking this sketch a lot, right from the frantic beginning with Buck angrily driving fast.
— Haha, good reveal that the reason for Buck’s panicked driving is because he simply has to go to the bathroom.
— Gilda’s reaction to Buck running over a rabbit was very funny.
— LOL, hilarious ending.
— Overall, wow, what a great little 10-to-1 sketch. Something about this sketch had a feeling that is atypical of this SNL era; I dunno why, but I think it has more of an early 80s Ebersol era feel.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS
cast chases host from studio after he wears out his welcome

     

— Why is Garrett dressed in that afro wig and outfit? Was a sketch cut at the last minute?
— Fantastic continuation of tonight’s cold opening and monologue by having the cast angrily chasing Buck off the stage and beating him down backstage. Probably one of my new all-time favorite goodnights gags the show has ever done.
— We get a very extended goodnights afterwards, with the last minute of this just showing the SNL Band jamming out on the goodnights music. Probably one of the longest the goodnights music has ever been heard in an SNL episode.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A fun episode, and easily the best one of this underwhelming season so far. I got a lot of enjoyment from this episode, especially the “protesting audience” storyline early in the show and all the creative, inspired premises that appeared after Update (particularly Bad Clams).


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Bill Russell):
— a fairly big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Bea Arthur

Posted on

November 3, 1979 – Bill Russell / Chicago (S5 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
Chappaquiddick looms as Ted Kennedy (BIM) makes campaign announcement

   

— After having an epic graying beard in the first two episodes of the season, Garrett is now seen clean-shaven. Makes sense, as I’m aware this episode has one of his obligatory drag roles later on.
— Haha at Laraine doing the Kennedy accent.
— LOL, Bill is great as Ted Kennedy.
— Right off the bat tonight, we’re seeing big speaking roles for several writers.
— I like Jim Downey in this.
— The story about Ted diving into the river to swim all the way to his campaign headquarters is very funny.
— A pretty good laugh from Bill pulling out the damp paper from his pocket.
— I like Jane’s stiff, frozen smile during Bill’s whole speech.
— The Ted Kennedy speech has some funny lines, especially the “so what?” part regarding his past.
— Overall, very solid stuff, and the best cold opening of the season so far.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— No featured players are credited tonight.


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Wow, is he SNL’s tallest host ever?
— By the way, for the rest of this episode review, I’ll be referring to him and Bill Murray by their last names, so as not to cause any mix-ups for readers. I’ll be doing the same in any future episodes where the host has the same first name as a then-current cast member.
— The comparisons between basketball and an SNL week are okay.
— Overall, this monologue was kinda quick and nothing special, but he handled himself fairly well for a non-actor.
STARS: **½


BANSHEE
Ed Herlihy [real] endorses the Banshee surrogate mourning device

  

— LOL at over-the-top loud crying from the Banshee device.
— Love the examples of different-accented Banshee models, especially the one for black people.
— Overall, a funny lesser-known commercial.
STARS: ***½


THE BLACK SHADOW
white basketball team keeps coach (host) out of trouble

        

— Ha, tons of writers appearing in this one.
— Franken: “You guys think we should take off our uniforms before we shower?” All: “Nah.”
— I think the guy in the #8 jersey is writer/soon-to-be-credited featured player Peter Aykroyd (he’s the guy standing behind Franken and Davis in the third screencap above), but I’m not 100% sure as I’m not familiar with what he looks like. Unlike the many other writer-featured players this season who I already feel like I know well due to them making frequent on-camera appearances in the first four seasons, Peter Aykroyd has never appeared on-camera prior to this season (as far as I know).
— All of the players have single-digit jersey numbers. Is that an intentional subtle joke?
— Gilda’s walk-on as a pregnant character gets a big audience reaction.
— There’s the aforementioned Garrett Morris drag role of the night.
— In the SNL “The First Five Years” documentary, I remember Franken mentioning how surprised he was by just how good Garrett was as the dramatic mother in this sketch and how it made him think “Why don’t we use this guy more?”
— Russell asking “It’s because I’m black, isn’t it?” EVERY time someone points out a fault of his is increasingly funny.
— HAHA at the (fake, it turns out) reveal from Jane that the reason for Russell being fired is because he’s black.
— I always enjoy a good fake freeze-frame at the end of an SNL sketch.
— I like the Bill Murray-sung ending theme song, and how it has the same melody as the “Mercy Killers” theme song from the previous season.
— Overall, a very well-done extensive sketch.
STARS: ****½


THE LANDERS FILES
Ann (JAC) dramatizes etiquette for widow (GIR)

     

— Jane’s voice is great.
— Paul Shaffer was really funny in his small scene.
— The multiple choice answers are fairly funny.
— Jane’s having difficulty not tripping over her lines while pronouncing her s’s in that odd way.
— Having no familiarity with Ann Landers, I feel like parts of this overall sketch went over my head, but I was still able to get some enjoyment out of this.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I’m a Man”


WEEKEND UPDATE PREVIEW


WEEKEND UPDATE
(TOS) & (GIR) stage a Korean Surprise dinner party during LAN interview
a century after its invention, BIM sings “Happy Birthday” to a light bulb

    

— This is the first Laraine remote segment in what feels like a long time.
— Boy, those stereotypical Asian accents from Tom Schiller and Gilda…….
— WTF at Schiller shooting Gilda out of nowhere as a “surprise”.
— Overall, I have no idea WHAT to think of that whole Korean segment. All I know is I got zero laughs from it.
— A reference from Murray to the “Find the Popes in the Pizza” contest. Murray’s joke was weak, though.
— Murray doing his traditional smarmy Happy Birthday song to an Edison lightbulb is funny stuff as usual, especially the great visual of the lightbulb sticking out of a birthday cake.
— We didn’t get any desk pieces from any Update guests tonight. No problem with me. After all, if we DID get a desk piece, it probably just would’ve been someone from this era’s trio of overused recurring Update characters (Sarducci, Rosannadanna, Escuela).
STARS: **½


NICK BOREALIS
Nick “Borealis” & Swankmates entertain black soldiers at Greenland base

     

— A Nick the Lounge Singer sketch.
— Funny part with Nick asking his all-black audience about seeing “Blacula”.
— Are they trying to pass off Yvonne Hudson (seated next to Bill Russell) as a male soldier?
— I love Murray’s singing of the “War (Uh!) What Is It Good For” song, especially his exaggerated “Uh!”s.
— Overall, this was okay, but there have been much better Nick the Lounge Singer sketches. This also went on too long for my likes.
STARS: ***


THE CONTINUING CORRESPONDENCE OF ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
Eleanor Roosevelt’s (JAC) correspondence to creditors suggests lesbianism

   

— Another sketch tonight starring Jane Curtin behind a desk. The voice she always uses as Eleanor Roosevelt is pretty funny.
— Where in the world is this sketch going?
— Oh, so Harry Shearer IS in this episode. After being uncredited in tonight’s opening montage and not appearing as one of the many basketball team members in the Black Shadow sketch, I assumed he wasn’t going to be in tonight’s episode.
— Overall, boy, I did not get what this sketch was going for AT ALL. I went through this entire thing without laughing a single time (except an initial mild chuckle from Jane’s voice). What a bore.
STARS: *


MR. BILL STAYS HOME
by Walter Williams- Mr. Hands’ home remedies harm

     

— *groan*
— Overall, I have found nothing to say about this. I was pretty much glazed-over during this entire thing. Didn’t laugh a single time. (second sketch in a row I’ve said that tonight) And I’ve already said more than enough times lately how burned out I am on the redundant humor in these insanely-overused Mr. Bill shorts.
STARS: *


SPORTS HOTLINE
to host’s surprise, callers to (BIM)’s radio show focus on obscure sports

 

— Murray’s dismissive response to some of the callers are funny.
— Overall, this had a promising idea with the fake-sounding sports, but I wasn’t crazy about the result at all. Man, tonight’s episode is LOSING me. The show has been dying during the last few segments.
STARS: **


PEOPLE LOSING MONEY FOR PEOPLE
you’ll get a rebate after buying two Chryslers, says Joe Garagiola (HAS)

 

— What was with Harry being transparent in front of the chroma-key screen at the beginning? (screencap below) Seemed to be a technical error, since they fixed it after a few seconds.

— A solo sketch for Harry? Hmm, he DEFINITELY should’ve been credited in tonight’s opening montage.
— Overall, a pretty funny concept and, while this wasn’t great, it was certainly a few steps above the last few duds that preceded this. I’m always down for a Harry-Shearer-as-a-pitchman commercial with low-key humor.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Street Player”


BARRY WHITE’S BIG AND TALL THAT’S ALL
mall woes are affecting Barry White’s Big & Tall That’s All store

     

— Strange that an unknown actor is playing Barry White. He looks a little familiar; is he one of the then-current SNL Band members?
— I liked the Barry White theme song.
— Funny line from Russell about how fat people never see commercials because that’s when they go to the refrigerator.
— Didn’t even realize Garrett’s character is supposed to be fat until just now when he walked away and his padded belly became more noticeable.
— The acting in this is kinda awkward so far.
— Ah, I see this is yet another sketch that exists in the same universe as Scotch Boutique, as we’re now getting a cameo from Gilda’s Scotch Boutique character and Murray’s Barber Shop character. If only they could get Maureen Stapleton to show up as her Candy Store character, then this sketch would feel complete.
— Overall, this started kinda slow, but got a little better as it went along, and ended up being a decent continuation of the “New Mall” series of sketches. I still felt this one could’ve been a little better than it was, though.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Not too great overall. The first half had a few noteworthy segments, especially The Black Shadow and the cold opening. But, kinda like the preceding episode, the show hit a REALLY rough patch after Update. Even Update itself wasn’t all that great. Hell, even Nick the Lounge Singer had probably one of his weaker appearances by default (still watchable, though).
— For an athlete host, Bill Russell wasn’t too bad. He certainly had his stiff moments, but he came off likable and I enjoyed him a lot in the Black Shadow sketch.
— Three episodes in, and there has yet to be a really good episode this season. I also notice I haven’t felt much enjoyment from watching this season; a huge contrast to how I felt watching the first four seasons.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Eric Idle):
— a moderate step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Buck Henry

Posted on

October 20, 1979 – Eric Idle / Bob Dylan (S5 E2)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
after hearing that host is sick, Buck Henry [real] begs to replace him

   

— A bearded Buck Henry cameo!  For the second consecutive week! Heh, did he not even leave Studio 8H since last week?
— We get the debut of SNL’s traditional backstage llama!
— Funny with Buck’s repeatedly ignored insistence that he’ll go on in place of an ill Eric Idle. A good continuation of the traditional gag that Buck gets no respect at the show.
— Interesting LFNY format break.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— For some reason, the theme music and audience applause stops almost immediately after it starts, then after a weird pause, the music and applause continues. What the heck was that all about?
— After being uncredited in his debut last week, Harry Shearer is finally in the opening montage tonight.

However, instead of being announced under the title “featuring”, he’s announced as “And a little of Harry Shearer!” Considering this was the very first time a featured player was ever credited on SNL, I guess the show hadn’t yet figured out what title to put that type of cast member under.


MONOLOGUE
under-the-weather host does impressions while strapped to a stretcher

     

— Haha, oh my god at Eric being carried out onstage in a stretcher. Great entrance.
— Beards must’ve been really popular at the time, as we’ve been seeing a lot of them this season between Garrett’s thick graying beard last week, Buck in his two cameos, and now Eric Idle.
— His “stretcher impersonations” are really fun, especially Superman and Gary Gilmore.
STARS: ****


HOTEL-MOTEL ART FAIR
pitchman Tom Clay (HAS) advertises the upcoming Hotel-Motel Art Fair

  

— Our very first Harry Shearer pitchman commercial!
— His pitchman voice is great and he’s doing a fantastic job at the fast-talking spiel, picking up the slack Aykroyd left when it comes to commercials of this nature.
— Overall, funny concept and an absolutely great performance from Harry.
STARS: ****


SHOE STORE
shoe salesman (host) frustrates customer’s (BIM) quest for footwear

     

— When Bill was first shown outside the store window, I thought that was Dan Aykroyd for a second, before I remembered he’s not on the show anymore.
— I’m loving the absurdity of this sketch, and this material is perfect for Eric’s comedic style and Brit delivery.
— I’m cracking up endlessly at Eric incredulously asking why Bill would want to buy two shoes.
— Another great part with Eric rapidly shooting down each of Bill’s scenarios.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Gotta Serve Somebody”


PRINCE CHARLES TELLS YOU HOW TO PICK UP GIRLS!
Prince Charles’ (host) book tells you how to use royal ties to get girls

    

— The audience is liking the concept more than I am so far, but Eric is funny in this.
— Garrett still has his beard from the last episode.
— Bill’s pick-up line being “My great uncle was just blown up by Irish terrorists” was hilarious.
— Laraine’s “hot monkey love” line was really funny.
— Eric’s “choking the chicken” remark was yet another hilarious line.
— LOL at Eric stiffly passing out as the camera started fading to black.
— Overall, that was really good; much better than I was expecting.
STARS: ****


WEEKEND UPDATE
Gerald Hacker (HAS) reports on an American straw vote held in Britain
BIM lets Princess Margaret’s anti-Irish comments slide- she was ‘faced
Roseanne Roseannadanna meanders from home-buying to Yves St. Laurent

       

— Interesting change of pace with Harry Shearer as a Weekend Update London correspondent at his own Update set, showing pre-taped interviews with various people.
— Bill’s Princess Margaret/Irish pigs commentary was really funny, especially the “slut, tramp, slimebucket” comments.
— The first appearance of the season for Rosanne Roseannadanna, a character I’ve slowly been getting tired of lately.
— Overall, Rosannadanna’s commentary was standard stuff, but she did have some funny disgusting lines when she was going on about roughage.
— Why was Bill missing from the desk at the end during Jane’s sign-off?  Did our utility player of the season leave the desk early tonight to get in costume for the next sketch?
STARS: ***


HARDCORE II
(LAN) discovers her father (BIM) is a transvestite stripper

     

— Looks like Bill DID have to duck out of Update early to get ready for the next sketch.  Maybe it took a while to apply that prosthetic nose he’s wearing in this.
— Bill’s husky, raspy voice is cracking me up.
— What? The sketch is over already? That’s it?
— Man, this sketch was terrible, and felt pretty pointless. Almost had an 80-81 season feel. (NOTE TO SELF: Get ready for that notorious season, me.  It’s comin’ closer and closer.) Bill’s voice was the only thing I even laughed at.
— Maybe I need to be familiar with the movie this is parodying in order to appreciate it.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Believe In You”


ANDY KAUFMAN
Andy Kaufman [real] challenges a female audience member to wrestle him

       

— The first SNL appearance of Andy’s well-known female wrestling gimmick.
— HAHA at the audience lightly booing and hissing during Andy’s unintentionally sexist statements about women.
— A Bob Zmuda appearance.
— A pregnant woman among the group of volunteers?!?!?
— Oh, I see where this is going. The pregnant woman is going to be chosen just because she seems like the least likely option.
— Heh, Andy panics and ends up switching the pregnant woman out for another woman.
— Boy, this wrestling match is weird to watch on SNL, but it’s pretty funny and strangely fascinating.
— Very funny part with the volunteer suddenly pulling Andy down from behind when Andy was in the middle of yelling “Shut up!” to the booing audience.
— Andy’s doing a great job playing the villain and making the audience genuinely hate him.
— Speaking to the camera, Andy challenges swimmer Diana Nyad to a future match, and says he’ll shave his own head in front of the audience if loses. As far as I know, nothing ended up becoming of that challenge, but it was a funny idea.
STARS: ****


HEAVY SARCASM
Joan Face (JAC) & guests (host) & (BIM) feign emotions

— A kinda-funny concept, but I worry this will be one of those one-note sketches where the humor fizzles out fast after the premise is immediately revealed right at the top of the sketch.
— Yeah, I’m not crazy about this so far.
— Overall, despite a very good performance from Jane, this was just weak.
STARS: **


ASK ELVIS
psychic (LAN) relays answers to your questions

 

— Strange concept. Again, the audience is liking this more than I am.
— Ha, I’m pretty sure that’s Andy doing the Elvis voice-over.
— I guess the absurdity of showing a rotating Elvis bust while his voice-over answers questions is kinda funny, but this is yet another sketch I’m just not crazy about.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “When You Gonna Wake Up”


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A tale of two halves. The first half of this episode featured lots of great stuff that I loved, but man was I bored during the entire second half, except for the Andy Kaufman segment and Bob Dylan’s last performance, and those were just guest segments. All of the actual SNL-written material in that second half of the show fell really flat with me.
— Eric Idle’s talents felt a little wasted. He had some strong moments early on in the night, especially the Shoe Store sketch, but the weak post-Update half of the show kinda misused his talents. Tonight’s episode just couldn’t measure up to Eric’s fantastic previous hosting stints; and unfortunately, this ends up being the last time he ever hosted.
— Compared to last week, there didn’t seem to be as many writers making tons of on-screen appearances tonight. Probably because a lot of this episode’s sketches didn’t involve many performers. Nice to see lots of Harry Shearer, though, who’s already showing loads of potential.
— Not a great start to the season so far with these first two episodes. I’m noticing a higher average of weak sketches than the last few seasons had.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Steve Martin):
— a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Bill Russell